Yerevan dream: you need to buy a lifestyle, not square meters - an independent consultant from UN-Habitat

What could Yerevan become if specialists who really think about people are involved in its development? The Novosti-Armenia agency asked Anna Urnova, an independent UN-Habitat consultant in New York, to answer this question.

YEREVAN, February 26. Novosti-Armenia. What could Yerevan become if specialists who really think about people are involved in its development? The Novosti-Armenia agency asked Anna Urnova, the founder of the boutique agency for strategic consulting of brands and territories UrUrban, former head of the Moscow Center for Urban Studies and an independent consultant of UN-Habitat (United Nations Human Settlements Programme) in New York, to answer this question.

Novosti-Armenia - You have worked in two mega-cities, Moscow and New York, for many years. How did it happen that you are now engaged in the development of territories in Armenia?

A. Urnova - I do not work only with Armenia. In fact, my company has been working in the CIS and European countries for the last 4 years. It turned out that there are a lot of projects and investors who want to do something unique. However, there is practically no one to come up with something unique, calculate the economic efficiency and put it on wheels. I pay a lot of attention to the issue of the feasibility of the project. And this is not only working with urban areas, these are unique tourist sites, national parks and the transformation of material assets of large corporations or banks. Although I must admit, of all the cities, Yerevan is in my heart.

News-Armenia - And how did Yerevan end up there?

A. Urnova - I have known Yerevan since early childhood, and I remember an incredibly flourishing city. I am the granddaughter of the Russian ambassador (Andrei Yuryevich Urnov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to Armenia from 1994 to 1998 - Ed.). Fortunately, we did not sit behind a fence, but lived in an open house and often went to "normal" guests, and not to embassy ones. My uncle, a theater director, presented his graduation performance here, and we spent a lot of time with the actors. The beginning of the 90s was very difficult - no water, no electricity, many entrances had no doors - they were used to heat the stoves in the apartments. The country did not know where to go. But in my memories, the people were kind, and the city was beautiful and flourishing. I remember Yerevan as a happy city.

News-Armenia - And now, how do you perceive Yerevan from the point of view of an urban development expert?

A. Urnova - It seems to me that in pursuit of favorable living conditions, the city has ceased to be a place with a high quality of life. As if time should be spent only inside an apartment with good plumbing, and there is no need to look out the window. Greenery has disappeared from the streets, there are too many cars. We are seeing a construction boom that does not obey any logic. Although Yerevan has a general plan, and a large urban environment was included in it. And now it seems that Yerevan residents should only go to restaurants and visit hairdressers - there is no third place to live. Perhaps this is part of the natural evolution of the city. At first, everyone wanted comfortable apartments, but in today's reality, buying just square meters is not enough - the buyer is looking for a place for a pleasant life. We stopped coming to our homes only to sleep, as it was before, and began to look at what else is outside our apartments. This is a global trend, especially when people have the opportunity to work remotely.

News-Armenia - And what can be done in this situation?

A. Urnova - There is no need to reinvent the wheel - there are many successful examples in the world. Developers and landowners can do very interesting projects, and most importantly - they want to. But so far there are not many such responsible people. In order to attract more interested players, Anna Kachurovskaya (specialist in the development of cultural territories) and I even created a program on Van radio “Neskuchny Yerevan” (103.1 FM), where we discuss best practices, approaches and what can be done differently.

News-Armenia- Should the state oblige developers to build additional infrastructure or will the market decide for itself?

A. Urnova - Of course, there should be legislative norms on construction that would oblige zoning of adjacent territories depending on the volume of development and maintaining a balance between the developer's earnings, the comfort of the resident and the balance of the urban environment. There should be standards for the number of elevators in multi-story buildings, parking spaces, green areas, sports grounds, schools, kindergartens. I constantly hear stories when a young family bought an apartment, and takes the child to kindergarten on the other side of the city. But while legislators are slow, I think that home buyers will start paying attention to this. The fact is that at the end of 2024, the preferential mortgage program in Yerevan ended. It made it possible to use income tax to offset the mortgage payment. People took out a mortgage and bought everything in sight. It did not matter what to buy, the main thing was within the city limits. A lot of square meters were built for this request. But the program was closed, which means that now the buyer will be more selective. For their money they will want to acquire a corresponding lifestyle, not meters. Moreover, in Yerevan it is now more expensive than in Dubai. Developers must reformat their approach - they need to come up with ideas together with specialists about what will be unique and what quality of life will the new residents have.

Novosti-Armenia - Based on the analysis of social, environmental and other studies, you create unique, non-standard products. Do Armenian developers invite you to their projects?

A. Urnova - Yes, I am invited, but I carefully select projects for cooperation. Over the years of work, I have encountered many offers, and it is clear to me: ideas are expensive, and not everyone is ready to pay for them. Many developers follow the proven "built - sold" scheme, which does not suit me. I choose projects where brands strive to change the perception of the city, country, world, where every detail - from architecture to infrastructure, carries a unique idea. Developing such high-quality solutions requires time, expertise and rejection of templates, and criticism in this process is often not welcomed. That is why I work with those who are ready to invest in truly unique objects and hear criticism of already developed solutions.

News-Armenia - Do you have any specific examples?

A. Urnova - For example, I am currently working on the Goght Urban Valley cottage village project. An important criterion for me was that the investors themselves want to build it and live there. And this immediately raises the project to a new level. Here you need to live a full life, play sports, raise and teach children, relax, communicate with neighbors. You begin to think about who will live next to you, because as a result, you become part of the community. This approach guarantees that the created space becomes not just high-quality, but truly alive and meets the highest expectations, turning into a unique space for living.

News-Armenia - Tell us about the project, what is interesting about it?

A. Urnova - The Goght Urban Valley project is being implemented 30 km from Yerevan in a very picturesque place. A huge territory - 75 hectares, of which a third are parks, apricot orchards, cascading ponds with a clever water purification system, sports grounds, studios for children, a kindergarten and a school for 300 children. And this will not be a closed club, but a cool place where people will live and come. It seems to me that this will be an ideal place for young families at an affordable price. This is a rare project when, before building, we - specialists conducted an analysis and created a model for the integrated development of the territory. The project has a balance between the amount of housing, social infrastructure, leisure, business earnings and even climate.

News-Armenia - And how is the impact of climate taken into account?

A. Urnova - Starting from the simplest, what plants can grow here, and ending with the calculation of insolation standards. We all like it when it is light, but when it is too hot, it is no longer comfortable. That is why, for example, houses are planned so that there are no direct rays of sunlight in the windows. Children's and sports grounds should be in the shade - which means that large-sized trees should be planted. And all this is calculated at once, comprehensively, so that there are no surprises later, when you have a path laid, but it is too hot to walk on it during the day. A comfortable environment will not build itself. This must be done with a team of professionals.

Novosti-Armenia - Can you give examples of projects in Yerevan in which you have not participated, but which arouse professional interest?

A. Urnova - Of course. For example, the cool Amanoo project: they work with the landscape in such a way that you feel not in the city, but in a real jungle. They work with professionals who understand what to plant and how. Or the Sunday Towers project - they have non-standard approaches and very high-quality renders. I remember from pictures, that is, not yet built, their playground "Dragon" - the idea is original, but its placement in the sand makes you think: in Yerevan, not only children, but scorpions love sand. In general, the city has projects with interesting solutions in individual areas, but there is no systemic approach to infrastructure.

News-Armenia - How is the psychology of construction changing, how much time will it take?

A. Urnova - It took Moscow 10 years. And only after they banned spot development - this is when a multi-story building is screwed into every vacant lot, and obliged developers to build in blocks, with mandatory infrastructure. Blocks are not built any other way. And developers were forced to look for the best specialists in playgrounds. They began to hire separate bureaus for landscaping and creating parks. I still get calls from Moscow and are asked to develop the filling of the territory from the point of view of the land use scenario, economic efficiency or unique features of future objects.

Novosti-Armenia - Do you think it won't work without prohibitive measures?

A. Urnova - I would also like to live in a world of responsible and conscious builders, but experience shows that there should be clear standards - architectural codes, standards activies. In Yerevan, it may take 5-10 years to develop such a strategy. And they will come to it anyway. Developers will have to think about our health, about children, about safety, about comfort, about happiness. At the end of our lives, we do not remember what kind of wallpaper we had in our apartment. We remember what kind of tree grew under the window, we remember the smells we felt, we remember the yard and the park where we walked. And creating such emotional connections is part of my work.

Source: https://newsarmenia.am/news/interview/pokupat-nado-obraz-zhizni-a-ne-kvadratnye-metry-nezavisimyy-konsultant-un-habitat/